I just wrapped up my first playthrough of the Persona/Etrian Odyssey hybrid game, Persona Q: Shadows of the Labyrinth. I liked it, overall, though it became more and more of a chore to play the farther I got.
It's obvious right from the get go, considering the nature of the game, that none of the characters involved would remember anything. That's ultimately what happens. But the journey is the point, not the destination, right? Well, the journey could have been better.
It's not that I didn't like playing the game. The battle system is well designed, and I love the Persona switching mechanic for the whole team. It's just so easily broken. Fairly early on, I figured out that nearly all the enemies in the game have a Light or Dark weakness. Since every Light/Dark spell in the Persona series are instakills, this meant I could take the multihit Hama/Mudo skills and wipe out almost any random battle. I mean not every enemy had a light or dark weakness, but enough of them did that, unlike in an Etrian Odyssey game, for example, random battles did not scare me after the first few floors of the game. That's a problem! Sure, you don't have to play the game this way, and for a while I tried going without, but I'm sure doing it that way would add another 40 hours of battling onto an already 50+ hour game (I finished the game in 60 hours). No thanks.
The bosses were fun, though, I have to say. The second boss, especially, was fun to figure out, and was hilarious, to boot (not something I thought I'd ever say about a Persona or Etrian Odyssey boss). I don't know if it was completely intended to be funny, but I read it that way and think it works.
Then there's the Persona fanservice. Some of it I like - seeing all these characters again is great, since I love them all (besides Ken - fuck you, Ken). Seeing them interact with the cast of both P3 and P4 is interesting, because prior to this, you get weirdo Persona Arena which is years later. The less said about the plot in that game, the better, quite frankly, interesting though it was.
But some of the fanservice is gross. There's WAY more innuendo from Teddie this time, which I found amusing at first, but as the game went on it was like "gee, dude, calm down, none of these girls are going to bone you." Quite frankly, it amazed me that he didn't get beat up by Mitsuru or Yukari every time he opened his mouth near the end of the game. It sucks, because I really like Teddie, actually. Maybe if I play through as the Persona 4 team, he gets some more non pervy lines?
I did choose the Persona 3 team, and actually went through the entire game with a P3 only team - P3MC, Akihiko, Junpei, Yukari, and Aigis. We've gotten so much more Persona 4 content (which I love, to be clear!) that I wanted to spend more time with these characters, since other than weirdo Persona Arena, Persona 3 is all you get (yes, a few P3 characters are in Arena, but what they're up to is so off the wall and weird that I don't count it). It was nice to hang out with these guys again. Their voices did grate a bit in the last two labyrinths, though - my fiancee would roll her eyes and groan every time Junpei would say "Oh no! We've got an FOE breathing down our asses!" which was pretty much every five steps in those last two dungeons. And Akihiko - whenever I see a treasure box, I want to open it, which is what I've done every time we reach one. Why do you insist on asking me what I want to do with it every time? At least when Aigis points one out, she jokes about destroying it, which is at least amusing.
But yes, sadly, the game just does go on a bit long. The final labyrinth is ten floors high, with the first seven floors being little bit sized ones, but those last couple of floors in the last labyrinth are awful. Moving platforms, pistons that rise and fall between floors, goddamn Death chasing you around, annoying random battle enemies who have instakill and ailment spells (and are resistant to them, too, most of the time!), these stupid spider FOEs that you have to puzzle way around, and what is quite frankly the most elaborate two floor puzzle I have ever encountered in any dungeon crawler make for quite a rough few hours of exploring. I don't experience this in Etrian Odyssey - at least, most of the time - and it was pretty painful here. My favorite dungeons in these styles of games are just labyrinths that you wander around, mapping out, looking for treasure, maybe with the occasional damage tile, pitfall, or conveyor belt. Not the intricate puzzle monstrosities in Persona Q.
The third dungeon is the best example of this. For half the dungeon, there aren't even that many random battles - you're just trying to figure out how to proceed most of the time. The atmosphere of the dungeon is great - it's very creepy. The whole dungeon reminded me of Corpse Party, actually. But because getting through it is so complicated, the third dungeon is where I was when I put the game down for two months. This is the first time I've played a Persona game that I didn't devour as quickly as I possibly could. The dungeon isn't badly designed or anything, and I'm sure someone out there would love it, but it just isn't for me. I'd rather spend more time leveling my characters up and mastering battles, which this game didn't do as well as, say, Etrian Odyssey III, for example. The aforementioned toothless random battles combined with super complex dungeons just didn't scratch the itch I thought it was going to when I bought the game.
If this post seems very down on the game, I'm sorry. I did largely enjoy playing it! The things I didn't like about it just stand out so much more for me than the things I did. The music was fantastic, as always for the Persona series, throughout the game. The Velvet Room has some cool stuff in it, now, such as Extracting Skill Cards from Personae, allowing you to teach your main Personae new moves. You can choose which moves your new Persona gets when you fuse, but they've definitely limited which moves the result can learn. This is probably for the best, I suppose, since in Persona 4 Golden or SMTIV, you could create ridiculous demons that absorbed every element, healed both HP and SP when battle was over, and had a Megidolaon or Pierce or whatever to boot. Still, I had fun fusing demons, as always.
Overall, I don't know when I'll go back to Persona Q. Probably eventually, as I wouldn't mind seeing how the Persona 4 side of the story plays out (though it won't be TOO different from the P3 side, just certain scenes, especially in the first labyrinth before you meet the other team, will have different characters in them). Also, hearing the Persona 3 main character actually speak is going to be weird. It was weird hearing P4MC talk in Persona 4 Arena, and it's still kind of weird here.
Anyway, you could do worse for a shoehorned fanservicey game, but you certainly could do better, too. I'm ready for Persona 5, and I think I'd rather replay P3P or P4G before going back to PQ, sadly. Also, it is an absolute shame that they included Theodore from P3P, but not the female P3 main character. Dammit Atlus!
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Majora's Mask 3D
So because I'm a giant nerd, I just beat Majora's Mask 3D two days after came out, with all masks and heart pieces (haven't caught all the fish, yet, and doubt I ever will. I may be missing a seventh bottle, as well, if the rumor I heard is true and such a thing exists). I have to get my initial impressions of the full game out now while they're still fresh.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is my favorite video game of all time. I think it is as close to perfect as a game can get as of this writing. If something better exists, I haven't played it yet. So when they announced the 3DS remake of the N64 game, I was thrilled. Finally, I can play MM portably! With better graphics! With, according to the announcement, "added content," whatever that means! Hooray!
Overall, I had a good time with the remake. I will certainly play it again, and parts of it are better than the original. However, they changed some things I didn't think needed changing. I'll get to those, because I'd like to praise the remake first.
The graphics have been updated and the game is gorgeous. They've added atmosphere to nearly every area in the game, primarily with extensive wall decorations, adding flavor to to whatever locale you find yourself in. My favorite example, which shows how far they went with this, is in the room you get the Mask of Scents. It's a room you'll only be in once in a playthrough - you have to follow the Deku Butler through this weird mini race reminiscent of the Dampe race from Ocarina of Time. You get to the very end, the Butler gives you the mask, and you warp out, never to return (there's no reason). You're there for all of, oh, twenty seconds. But as soon as I arrived I saw four giant Deku statues against the side walls. They took the time to render them in 3D, as well, so these statues that you see for all of twenty seconds have been lovingly crafted to do nothing but add flavor to a room that you're barely even in. That is how you upgrade an already impressively atmospheric game. I have nothing but praise for the visual upgrade they gave the game - from top to bottom, it is fantastic, including the 3D (which is no surprise, considering the Ocarina 3DS port was great in that department, as well).
Now for the world changes. They've actually changed the game up quite a bit, at least to someone like me who knows the game very well. Someone else on the internet no doubt already has an exhaustive list so I won't do that here. Notable things, though: the Owl Statues no longer create temporary saves, they're permanent. There are also save points in important places such as first rooms of dungeons - these don't act as warp points, too, but simply save points. I certainly used these, but mostly because I've beaten the original game countless times and feel like I'm not missing anything doing so. I do feel as though they make the game a bit more friendly to new players, which is all well and good, but considering how high I hold Majora's Mask as an experience, I'm a bit sad for them. Though it'll likely help people finish the game, now, so I suppose it's a net positive overall.
The Bomber's Notebook is really nice, now. It keeps track of basically every little thing you can do, and marks it as complete when you're finished, even if it's something like "complete a task, get some rupees." Though I feel similarly about this as I do the Owl Statues for new players, it too is a positive thing because it really encourages seeing everything the game has to offer. The Bombers themselves giving you hints - strictly optional, mind! - is very nice as well, especially for Majora's Mask veterans who sometimes can't keep what sidequests they've already completed straight. It also allowed me to get all the heart pieces fairly easily as well. This is one of those changes I liked a lot.
However, we have the bosses. According to the Iwata Asks interview, Eiji Aonuma wanted to change the bosses because he felt they were a bit too straightforward. This makes me sad, because now, two boss battles I liked have been changed for the worse. Poor Gyrog got it badly - though he certainly was the worst boss in the original version of the game, now they've gone and made his battle intolerable. Halfway through the battle, the platform sinks into the water and you're left fighting the fish as Zora Link. Spike bombs on chains sort of sprout from the ground, and the objective is to cut the chains right when Gyorg begins sucking you in. This causes him to eat the bombs, which exposes his weak spot for you to go slap around. This puts Gyorg in a category of boss battles that I hate in any genre of video game - the "wait around a likely intolerable amount of time for the boss to expose his weak spot, hit, repeat." Rather than be able to beat a boss quickly if you're really skilled, you're actually just sitting around waiting for the boss to deign to let you hit him. This is bad enough, but what they did to the Zora controls compounds the problem.
My biggest disappointment with the remake all have to do with Zora Link. One of my favorite things to do in the original Majora's Mask is zip around the Great Bay, leaping out of the water like a dolphin while going to whatever my destination is. It was a blast! While you can still do this, you better make sure you have magic power, because now to be able to go fast you have to hold R, which also activates the Zora shield thing. This sucks. You don't zip through the water unless holding R, you creep along almost at walking speed. Even when you're going fast, you have this annoying blue light effect surrounding you, which colors the surroundings a bit and obscures a little of what you can see. I discussed this a bit with someone on Talking Time, and they made the point that Zora Link moved too fast in the N64 version. While I disagree, if they wanted to slow him down or make him a bit more accessible, how about letting the player choose the speed without the magic penalty? How about giving the player both a slow and a fast option? The original game played just fine with the "fast only" option. They also fiddled with the "Dive" and "Float" buttons, making them a bit harder to activate, presumably to prevent accidental rising or falling. All they really did was make it harder to pull those off in high pressure situations - for example, the Gyorg fight.
But anyway - the other bosses were changed, as well, though not quite for the worse as Gyorg. Twinmold, the Stone Tower boss, turns into a sort of wrestling thing, since the Giant's Mask (which you get halfway through the battle, instead of before!) takes away Link's ability to use his sword, so now he just throws punches. Once you've punched the worm enough, you can grab his tail, which causes Link to swing him around and slam him, which eventually kills him. It's not bad nor does it play very poorly, it's just... kind of dumb. Thankfully, Odolwa and Goht haven't been changed too extensively, and are still fun to fight. Considering Goht is my favorite boss battle in the Zelda series, I'm very glad for that fact.
There were a few changes that I like a lot, actually. One is the reward for getting all the fairies in the first dungeon. Rather than getting the sword technique upgrade (which you now get from the second dungeon Fairy), you get the magic upgrade. This is very handy since Goron Link uses magic so much as he rolls around. The second is the placement of the Stone Mask. Rather than being in the area right before the Ikana Canyon, he's now hiding out right in the middle of the Pirate Fortress. Handy, because that's where it is most useful. I like the way they implemented it, too - Tatl suddenly asks you "Did you just call for me?" completely randomly. I, being stupid, thought "that's weird," and kept on, missing the mask the first time around. It wasn't until a Bomber suggested the soldier was in the Pirate Fortress that I went back and found it. Either way, though - excellent change.
I have mixed feelings about Majora's Mask 3D. I was hoping for a sort of definitive edition of the game, and I didn't get it, mostly due to the changes to the boss battles and Zora Link. I had a lot of fun playing it - I did 100% the thing in two and a half days, for gosh sakes - but I don't think this version has completely negated the N64 version like Ocarina of Time 3D did for its original game.
I did get a kickass Skull Kid statue out of the whole thing, though, which is really nice. I'm also quite fond of my 3DS home screen Majora's Mask theme, too, though that was an extra $2. Overall, I'll play the 3DS version again, no doubt, but I have to say I am a little disappointed.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is my favorite video game of all time. I think it is as close to perfect as a game can get as of this writing. If something better exists, I haven't played it yet. So when they announced the 3DS remake of the N64 game, I was thrilled. Finally, I can play MM portably! With better graphics! With, according to the announcement, "added content," whatever that means! Hooray!
Overall, I had a good time with the remake. I will certainly play it again, and parts of it are better than the original. However, they changed some things I didn't think needed changing. I'll get to those, because I'd like to praise the remake first.
The graphics have been updated and the game is gorgeous. They've added atmosphere to nearly every area in the game, primarily with extensive wall decorations, adding flavor to to whatever locale you find yourself in. My favorite example, which shows how far they went with this, is in the room you get the Mask of Scents. It's a room you'll only be in once in a playthrough - you have to follow the Deku Butler through this weird mini race reminiscent of the Dampe race from Ocarina of Time. You get to the very end, the Butler gives you the mask, and you warp out, never to return (there's no reason). You're there for all of, oh, twenty seconds. But as soon as I arrived I saw four giant Deku statues against the side walls. They took the time to render them in 3D, as well, so these statues that you see for all of twenty seconds have been lovingly crafted to do nothing but add flavor to a room that you're barely even in. That is how you upgrade an already impressively atmospheric game. I have nothing but praise for the visual upgrade they gave the game - from top to bottom, it is fantastic, including the 3D (which is no surprise, considering the Ocarina 3DS port was great in that department, as well).
Now for the world changes. They've actually changed the game up quite a bit, at least to someone like me who knows the game very well. Someone else on the internet no doubt already has an exhaustive list so I won't do that here. Notable things, though: the Owl Statues no longer create temporary saves, they're permanent. There are also save points in important places such as first rooms of dungeons - these don't act as warp points, too, but simply save points. I certainly used these, but mostly because I've beaten the original game countless times and feel like I'm not missing anything doing so. I do feel as though they make the game a bit more friendly to new players, which is all well and good, but considering how high I hold Majora's Mask as an experience, I'm a bit sad for them. Though it'll likely help people finish the game, now, so I suppose it's a net positive overall.
The Bomber's Notebook is really nice, now. It keeps track of basically every little thing you can do, and marks it as complete when you're finished, even if it's something like "complete a task, get some rupees." Though I feel similarly about this as I do the Owl Statues for new players, it too is a positive thing because it really encourages seeing everything the game has to offer. The Bombers themselves giving you hints - strictly optional, mind! - is very nice as well, especially for Majora's Mask veterans who sometimes can't keep what sidequests they've already completed straight. It also allowed me to get all the heart pieces fairly easily as well. This is one of those changes I liked a lot.
However, we have the bosses. According to the Iwata Asks interview, Eiji Aonuma wanted to change the bosses because he felt they were a bit too straightforward. This makes me sad, because now, two boss battles I liked have been changed for the worse. Poor Gyrog got it badly - though he certainly was the worst boss in the original version of the game, now they've gone and made his battle intolerable. Halfway through the battle, the platform sinks into the water and you're left fighting the fish as Zora Link. Spike bombs on chains sort of sprout from the ground, and the objective is to cut the chains right when Gyorg begins sucking you in. This causes him to eat the bombs, which exposes his weak spot for you to go slap around. This puts Gyorg in a category of boss battles that I hate in any genre of video game - the "wait around a likely intolerable amount of time for the boss to expose his weak spot, hit, repeat." Rather than be able to beat a boss quickly if you're really skilled, you're actually just sitting around waiting for the boss to deign to let you hit him. This is bad enough, but what they did to the Zora controls compounds the problem.
My biggest disappointment with the remake all have to do with Zora Link. One of my favorite things to do in the original Majora's Mask is zip around the Great Bay, leaping out of the water like a dolphin while going to whatever my destination is. It was a blast! While you can still do this, you better make sure you have magic power, because now to be able to go fast you have to hold R, which also activates the Zora shield thing. This sucks. You don't zip through the water unless holding R, you creep along almost at walking speed. Even when you're going fast, you have this annoying blue light effect surrounding you, which colors the surroundings a bit and obscures a little of what you can see. I discussed this a bit with someone on Talking Time, and they made the point that Zora Link moved too fast in the N64 version. While I disagree, if they wanted to slow him down or make him a bit more accessible, how about letting the player choose the speed without the magic penalty? How about giving the player both a slow and a fast option? The original game played just fine with the "fast only" option. They also fiddled with the "Dive" and "Float" buttons, making them a bit harder to activate, presumably to prevent accidental rising or falling. All they really did was make it harder to pull those off in high pressure situations - for example, the Gyorg fight.
But anyway - the other bosses were changed, as well, though not quite for the worse as Gyorg. Twinmold, the Stone Tower boss, turns into a sort of wrestling thing, since the Giant's Mask (which you get halfway through the battle, instead of before!) takes away Link's ability to use his sword, so now he just throws punches. Once you've punched the worm enough, you can grab his tail, which causes Link to swing him around and slam him, which eventually kills him. It's not bad nor does it play very poorly, it's just... kind of dumb. Thankfully, Odolwa and Goht haven't been changed too extensively, and are still fun to fight. Considering Goht is my favorite boss battle in the Zelda series, I'm very glad for that fact.
There were a few changes that I like a lot, actually. One is the reward for getting all the fairies in the first dungeon. Rather than getting the sword technique upgrade (which you now get from the second dungeon Fairy), you get the magic upgrade. This is very handy since Goron Link uses magic so much as he rolls around. The second is the placement of the Stone Mask. Rather than being in the area right before the Ikana Canyon, he's now hiding out right in the middle of the Pirate Fortress. Handy, because that's where it is most useful. I like the way they implemented it, too - Tatl suddenly asks you "Did you just call for me?" completely randomly. I, being stupid, thought "that's weird," and kept on, missing the mask the first time around. It wasn't until a Bomber suggested the soldier was in the Pirate Fortress that I went back and found it. Either way, though - excellent change.
I have mixed feelings about Majora's Mask 3D. I was hoping for a sort of definitive edition of the game, and I didn't get it, mostly due to the changes to the boss battles and Zora Link. I had a lot of fun playing it - I did 100% the thing in two and a half days, for gosh sakes - but I don't think this version has completely negated the N64 version like Ocarina of Time 3D did for its original game.
I did get a kickass Skull Kid statue out of the whole thing, though, which is really nice. I'm also quite fond of my 3DS home screen Majora's Mask theme, too, though that was an extra $2. Overall, I'll play the 3DS version again, no doubt, but I have to say I am a little disappointed.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
So Now I Kinda Like Vice City
I feel old.
I am playing through GTA: Vice City due to a PSN sale these past few days, and I have feelings of nostalgia which strikes me as ridiculous because I remember - quite clearly - when this game came out. I had already begun driving lessons! That was thirteen damn years ago now and it weirds me out.
It's funny, though. Not having played V yet, I truly think GTA was at it's best on the PS2. The games hit the right balance of story and action, but didn't bog you down with too much realism or whatever that IV suffered from. Vice City's problem, though, which got WAY worse in IV, is that you have a cellphone, and people call you and talk to you pointlessly, when they should just tell you whatever they were calling you about when you go start a mission. Though I suppose not being pestered to go play fucking pool with your fucking cousin all the damn time is way worse.
Anyway, I am having fun playing Vice City, which is new because I kind of strongly disliked it when it came out. For whatever reason, I was very anti-80s at the time, and the game is positively dripping with 80s flavor. I've since come around on most of the music of the era, so now I quite like the soundtrack. The splashes of pink and pastel 80s colors don't bother me as much, especially since most action games nowadays or just greys and browns for the most part (hello GTA frickin IV, for example).
The story is kind of goofy, because Vice City really feels like I am playing a video game. What I mean by this is rather than a seamless progression of a narrative like we would later get in San Andreas, you get a bunch of disjointed missions given to you by just random people who don't seem to have much bearing on the overall story besides "is a crime-y type of person." The characters leap to conclusions between missions that don't make much sense. For example, when I found out the guy who owns the giant mansion that I was doing missions for organized the bum drug deal at the beginning of the game, I didn't really have any clue as to why it was him. Like Tommy Vercetti, the player character, was told this guy did it, with not really any proof, and so he bought it, killed the guy, took his house, and has now begun taking over Vice City. The only way I can reconcile this is if I skipped a mission somewhere that gives you a bit of background as to what is going on. Basically, I don't like the story of Vice City much at all - 3 didn't make a ton of sense either but at least it felt logical working for one guy and then the next. San Andreas, which has its problems (that game has TOO many missions, a lot of which are completely out of character for CJ, for example), presents its central narrative a lot better (IMO, the best of any GTA game, sans V, which again I haven't played yet). San Andreas also has the best gameplay, but that's a different post.
You can see Vice City as a successful improvement on the gameplay of 3, though. They added motorcycles and boats and helicopters, all of which are pretty fun to drive around and the helicopters, specifically, make getting around the world very fun. There's nothing like landing the helicopter in the middle of a busy intersection, doing whatever you came to do, then hopping in and flying off.
The helicopter really shows how small Vice City is, though. Like it feels tiny. Even driving from one end of the game map to the other doesn't take very long. I can't remember if it's any bigger than the city in 3, but it doesn't feel like it. I need to revisit San Andreas again soon because that game felt absolutely enormous despite having so much empty space out in the countryside. Vice City, by comparison, is made up of two pretty small islands and some water (25% of which is taken up by the airport, believe it or not. The place is HUGE!).
Not having played the Saints Row series, either, I have to say I think GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas hit the style of GTA game I want just right. From what I've heard of Saints Row, they take the goofy, jokey stuff too far and has a completely ridiculous story instead of just a kind of ridiculous story. Then you have GTAIV which tried to be a fucking New York in 2006 simulator with its cell phones and "realistic" gray ass graphics and weather and awful car controls and all the fun sucked right out of it. I know I'm too hard on IV but I just cannot get into the thing. It feels like a giant chore as soon as I start playing it, which the PS2 trilogy never felt like.
I'm not sure if it's possible to be a GTA snob, but I'm pretty sure I am one.
I am playing through GTA: Vice City due to a PSN sale these past few days, and I have feelings of nostalgia which strikes me as ridiculous because I remember - quite clearly - when this game came out. I had already begun driving lessons! That was thirteen damn years ago now and it weirds me out.
It's funny, though. Not having played V yet, I truly think GTA was at it's best on the PS2. The games hit the right balance of story and action, but didn't bog you down with too much realism or whatever that IV suffered from. Vice City's problem, though, which got WAY worse in IV, is that you have a cellphone, and people call you and talk to you pointlessly, when they should just tell you whatever they were calling you about when you go start a mission. Though I suppose not being pestered to go play fucking pool with your fucking cousin all the damn time is way worse.
Anyway, I am having fun playing Vice City, which is new because I kind of strongly disliked it when it came out. For whatever reason, I was very anti-80s at the time, and the game is positively dripping with 80s flavor. I've since come around on most of the music of the era, so now I quite like the soundtrack. The splashes of pink and pastel 80s colors don't bother me as much, especially since most action games nowadays or just greys and browns for the most part (hello GTA frickin IV, for example).
The story is kind of goofy, because Vice City really feels like I am playing a video game. What I mean by this is rather than a seamless progression of a narrative like we would later get in San Andreas, you get a bunch of disjointed missions given to you by just random people who don't seem to have much bearing on the overall story besides "is a crime-y type of person." The characters leap to conclusions between missions that don't make much sense. For example, when I found out the guy who owns the giant mansion that I was doing missions for organized the bum drug deal at the beginning of the game, I didn't really have any clue as to why it was him. Like Tommy Vercetti, the player character, was told this guy did it, with not really any proof, and so he bought it, killed the guy, took his house, and has now begun taking over Vice City. The only way I can reconcile this is if I skipped a mission somewhere that gives you a bit of background as to what is going on. Basically, I don't like the story of Vice City much at all - 3 didn't make a ton of sense either but at least it felt logical working for one guy and then the next. San Andreas, which has its problems (that game has TOO many missions, a lot of which are completely out of character for CJ, for example), presents its central narrative a lot better (IMO, the best of any GTA game, sans V, which again I haven't played yet). San Andreas also has the best gameplay, but that's a different post.
You can see Vice City as a successful improvement on the gameplay of 3, though. They added motorcycles and boats and helicopters, all of which are pretty fun to drive around and the helicopters, specifically, make getting around the world very fun. There's nothing like landing the helicopter in the middle of a busy intersection, doing whatever you came to do, then hopping in and flying off.
The helicopter really shows how small Vice City is, though. Like it feels tiny. Even driving from one end of the game map to the other doesn't take very long. I can't remember if it's any bigger than the city in 3, but it doesn't feel like it. I need to revisit San Andreas again soon because that game felt absolutely enormous despite having so much empty space out in the countryside. Vice City, by comparison, is made up of two pretty small islands and some water (25% of which is taken up by the airport, believe it or not. The place is HUGE!).
Not having played the Saints Row series, either, I have to say I think GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas hit the style of GTA game I want just right. From what I've heard of Saints Row, they take the goofy, jokey stuff too far and has a completely ridiculous story instead of just a kind of ridiculous story. Then you have GTAIV which tried to be a fucking New York in 2006 simulator with its cell phones and "realistic" gray ass graphics and weather and awful car controls and all the fun sucked right out of it. I know I'm too hard on IV but I just cannot get into the thing. It feels like a giant chore as soon as I start playing it, which the PS2 trilogy never felt like.
I'm not sure if it's possible to be a GTA snob, but I'm pretty sure I am one.
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